Sunday Bird Droppings: The Orioles have a day left to make their trade decisions

Hello, friends.

The Orioles are continuing with their quest to disappear from the periphery of the American League playoff picture before the trade deadline comes along. Considering they started off with a 12-8 record through 20 games and they will only play 33 games before the deadline, this is a lot of failure condensed into a short period of time.

There have been no shortage of problems since that fun 20 game start. They cannot consistently hit. Their defense is more in the vein of a sieve. The bullpen is no longer reliably capable of getting through three high leverage innings without something bad happening. Add all of this up and you get, well, what we’ve seen from the Orioles.

Last night, they were shut out by the Jays, 5-0. Last decade it seemed that the city of Toronto was a nightmare for the Orioles and it seems in this strange 2020 season, with the Jays relocated to Buffalo for home games, that curse has carried over into the Jays current home. Check out Andrea SK’s recap of the latest loss for some not-so-lovely totals.

The trade deadline is tomorrow at 4pm. If the Orioles are no good, which the last two weeks suggest they are, then it is likely they will continue to be no good into next season, so anyone whose service time or contract status is such that he will be a free agent before 2022 would seem to be trade bait. That is assuming anyone is interested in his services.

No one will be able to say that the Orioles did not trade anyone. They already moved Richard Bleier in a surprising deal for a player to be named later. That was weeks ago. If you were imagining a bounty for the Orioles farm system, that’s probably not what you had in mind. Other teams are pulling off trades where they can. We’ll see if the Orioles make any moves today or if they save things for closer to the deadline.

The O’s will try to get back into the win column in another game against the Jays at 3:07 today. Tanner Roark is scheduled to start for the Jays, with Jorge Lopez making the start for the Orioles.

Around the blogO’sphere

Orioles place Armstrong on injured list (School of Roch)
Shawn Armstrong is now on the IL with “left SI joint inflammation,” which doesn’t sound like something anyone wants to be inflamed. Manager Brandon Hyde says he’ll probably miss the minimum ten days.

Orioles will monitor Harvey’s workload in his pending return (Baltimore Baseball)
Hunter Harvey is expected to be activated either today or tomorrow. Maybe he can be part of the solution to what’s wrong with this team.

Hyde’s decision to pitch to Randal Grichuk underscores his confidence in Cole Sulser (Baltimore Sun)
The confidence has not always worked out, it must be noted.

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

Today in 2013, the Orioles traded Xavier Avery for Michael Morse. This proved to be a useless trade, though not one whose ripple effects continue to haunt them today.

There’s one lone former Oriole with a birthday today. Happy 46th to 2001 seven-game pitcher Kris Foster. The O’s acquired Foster, along with catcher Geronimo Gil, in a July 2001 trade for Mike Trombley.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: writer Mary Shelley (1797), physicist Ernest Rutherford (1871), baseball Hall of Famer Ted Williams (1918), Apollo 13 astronaut Jack Swigert (1931), comedian Lewis Black (1948), and actress Cameron Diaz (1972).

On this day in history...

In 1363, naval forces of Chinese rebel leaders Chen Youliang and Zhu Yuanzhang began the five-week Battle of Lake Poyang. Zhu Yuanzhang, following his victory, supplanted the Yuan dynasty and founded the Ming dynasty.

In 1916, Ernest Shackleford rescued his men who were stranded on Elephant Island in Antarctica.

In 1967, Thurgood Marshall was confirmed to the Supreme Court, making him the first African American Justice.

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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on August 30. Have a safe Sunday. Go O’s!